The default value for z-index is auto.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title></title> <style type="text/css"> * .stacking-context1 { position: absolute; left: 10px; top: 70px; background: red; } * .stacking-context2 { position: absolute; left: 223px; top: 120px; background: gold; } * .level2 { position: absolute; background: blue; } * .level3 { position: static; background: yellow; } * .level4 { float: left; background: black; } * .level5 { position: static; background: pink; } * .level6 { position: relative; background: gray; } * .level7 { position: absolute; background: gold; } </style> </head> <body> <div class="stacking-context1 box"> <div class="caption"> Background and Borders of Stacking Context #1 <code>z-index:2</code></div> <span class="level2 box">Absolute <code>z-index:-999</code></span> <div class="level3 box">Static Block<br /> <span class="level4 box">Static Float</span> <span class="level5 box">Static Span</span><br /><p class="clear"></p> <span class="level6 box">Relative Span <code>z-index:0</code></span> <span class="level7 box">Absolute <code>z-index:999</code></span> </div> </div> <div class="stacking-context2 box">this is a test. this is a test. </div> </body> </html>